New Cuban film

Acclaimed director Hubert Sauper has directed a new Cuban film that centers on rigorous and honest conversations about Cuba, the challenges that it faces and it’s relationship with the US. Consider this a film version of Anthony DePalma’s The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times. Whether you have been to Cuba many times or have yet to visit this island, this film will reveal some of the many aspects of the Cuban character.

To see a clip from the movie, click on this link: Epicentro.

To live stream the movie on September 5 at 3:00pm EST, click on this link: Live Stream Epicentro.

Abroadia Welcomes Jessica Terrell to the Team!

We are pleased to have Jessica Terrell join our team. She is our new Student Engagement Officer and she will be responsible for connecting with students and guiding them as they prepare for an experience abroad. She grew up with military parents, moving frequently across the USA and world. Her love of culture and language really began when based in Spain. She attended Spanish public elementary school and learned to speak Spanish through full immersion. She studied abroad in high school for a year in Ecuador, and was fascinated by the difference in culture. She got her degree in Anthropology, and taught English in Spain, Ecuador, Taiwan, Cambodia and Myanmar. She worked as an Alumni Relations Coordinator for International Studies Abroad, and is eager to help others develop a love of travel, intercultural understanding, and expanded worldview.

Abroadia Signs Agreement with StudentUniverse

On August 17th Abroadia signed an agreement with the widely-respected travel service provider StudentUniverse. This allows Abroadia students and faculty to work directly with experienced professionals to find affordable flights to their international destinations.

We look forward to a long and productive relationship!

Global Thoughts with Fatima Largaespada

Today Fatima Largaespada was our featured Global Thoughts speaker. She shared with us her journey and her passion and competitiveness in fencing and what she hopes to accomplish in 2021, i.e., the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

If you missed the presentation, click on this LINK to see the recording.

Gracias, Fati!

Team Abroadia

Abroadia Signs MOU with Maximo Nivel

Abroadia and Máximo Nivel, an organization based in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Perú, have signed an agreement that will allow students to undertake internships in each of those countries. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and until further notice, the internships will be remote.

Abroadia Executive Director, Tom Millington, spoke of the importance of this new partnership. “Working with Máximo Nivel allows us to offer students a practical and immersive program for students interested in integrating themselves more deeply in their host community outside of class. Through these internships, even if done remotely, students will develop skills that will help them in their careers. We are pleased and excited about what this partnership will do.”

Don't Forget Cuba

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

-Unknown

This contemporary aphorism perfectly captures the environment we are living through right now. We have a virus rampaging through the US, Black Lives Matter protests, violence perpetrated on US citizens by a shadowy “law enforcement” organization and innumerable commentaries on social media that strain our capacity to digest all that is being thrown at us. “Infobesity” is a word I learned recently and it is certainly very appropriate.

Lost in the cacophony of opinion and good intentions is the remarkable story of Cuba. According to MEDICC, the country is:

“In process of re-opening. “Spike” of 37 new cases, 2 local events, w/ 1562 people quarantined in Havana area as result. 92 active cases, all stable. Total cases 2532; 2351 (+2) recovered, 93%; 87 deaths (+0); 269 in isolation; 397 followed in primary care.”

The 93% recovery rate is incredible. All the more so since Cuba has had to endure a cruel and meaningless embargo that is devoid of reason, effectiveness and utility. Between the saturation of statistics, anecdotes and opinions that assail us every day and information filtered by the Cuban exile community in Florida, very few people know about how effective Cuba has been in containing Covid-19.

Now more than ever, it is important to learn about Cuba by visiting it directly and meeting with the people who live there. Abroadia has worked with Cuba for years and my own personal experience in that country dates back to 2002.

I will be more than happy to discuss our program options to Cuba with you.

Click here to set up a phone conversation.

Gracias!

Tom

Congratulations, Dania!

We congratulate Dania, a Cuban student who worked with us over the last couple of years to assist American students with their Spanish and support us with planning events and logistics. She just graduated from the Universidad de La Habana with a degree in Law. Congratulations! We have a feeling she will make an excellent lawyer. It is great to see a friend/ally succeed!

Enhorabuena, Dania!

Global Thoughts Speaker: Jonathan Hansen

On July 16th author and Senior Lecturer on Social Studies and Faculty Associate at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, Jonathan Hansen, spoke to us about Cuba and his most recent book Young Castro. Topics included discussions about how the United States viewed Cuba with hungry eyes since the late 18th century; this historical fact flies in the face of the North American perception that Cuba only interested the US after 1959. Professor Hansen also spent time talking about the Platt Amendment and the Teller Amendment and their implications for Cuban self-determination. Also discussed was the current situation in Cuba regarding the potential removal of a historical monument due to the racial injustice and murder it represented. Sound familiar?

Thank you, Professor Hansen for an excellent presentation and discussion.

Injecting "International" into Local Imagination

In today’s (July 18, 2020) The New York Times, Yale professor of History David W. Blight writes about the need to re-imagine American history to be more robust and pluralistic.

He observes, “Our new Reconstruction will need local imagination, but also federal leadership on the cultural front.” The wreckage and chaos that is Trumpism must be a followed by a period where the country must reflect, pull itself together and reconfigure the image it presents to the world. Blight is not alone in making this appeal. Former US President Barack Obama, in a recent Instagram post urged Americans to become more involved in making our country better. He writes, “America is a constant work in progress. What gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further—to speak out for what’s right, to challenge an unjust status quo, and to imagine a better world.”

We are living in a polarized environment with a huge chasm between the “local” and the “federal". Bridging that gap will take time, involving a project that can appeal to both sectors. Abroadia believes that inculcating an international component into this project is worth heavy consideration. While Mr. Blight is correct in arguing for Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Bide to work with the Congressional Black Caucus and other figures in culture, history and the arts to devise a national strategy and create a national task force that will allow our country to reckon with the good and the bad of its past to create a narrative and dialog that allows Americans and visitors of our country to engage with themes, movements and figures relevant to the country and to the world. By doing so, Americans can come to see that their history is intertwined with the world. For example, many Americans are unaware of the Polish hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko who fought in the American Revolution on the American side (his plans at Fort Ticonderoga were the ones stolen by Benedict Arnold). There are numerous statutes of him and Casimir Pulaski (another Polish soldier who fought alongside the Americans during the Revolution) in the US, but how many people know about him? In fact, how many schools teach about his involvement in American history? By including these international aspects of American history in education and local conversations or projects we might be able to stem the tide of isolationism that too often rears its head in moments of weak national leadership or crisis. We can normalize internationalism sooner so that it does not seem so exotic or threatening later in life for many Americans.

Blight steers his thesis in this direction. He writes, “The task force can study how South Africa, Germany, Brazil and many other nations have or have not confronted their pasts in public memory or in law.” Local communities can look abroad for solutions or partnerships to mutual problems. The “local” should not defer too much to the “federal” in this regard. “How America reimagines its memorial landscape may matter to the whole world,” Blight warns us toward the end of his article. Indulging in self-canonization (a memorable phrase coined by John Le Carré in his infamous spat with Salman Rushdie) the last three years has left the US in the throes of an “epilepsy of conscience” that will take some time to address. History, Blight says, can be an excellent remedy for us. But, he forewarns us, “History is not a scorecard; it is a land both foreign and familiar. It lives in us even as it can seem so far away.” Our new approach is to make the foreign familiar and by injecting an international component into our local imagination, we would be taking a huge step forward.

Dear Students, You Have Been Robbed

I knew the minute I read the title “Dear Students, You Have Not Been Robbed” Op-Ed piece that Jennifer Senior wrote in the July 13, 2020 edition of The New York Times that I would not agree with most of it. And I was correct. I understand Ms. Senior’s intent with her article, but the thrust of its argument is a not-very-accurate perception of college students and college in general. Paraphrasing former Blackpool FC coach, Ian Holloway, “They are made of sand, but there’s concrete underneath,” (original quote: ‘Our castle was made of sand, but there’s concrete underneath.’), I would like to point out that we should not assume that all college-age students are panicked and lost young adults unable to comprehend and navigate the new Covid-19 world and helpless if they do not study on a college campus this fall. Having worked in international education for 20 years, I can say that most college students are tougher than people give them credit for.

But the real concern for me is the assertoric claim that on-campus education is passive and “useless”. Ms. Senior writes, somewhat belittlingly, that, “It’s easy to see what they will lose in this situation. The intoxicating pleasures of independence. The stimulation of late-night conversation about life, meaning, and the universe. The pure exhiliration (and relief) of finding your own kind.” I must ask: what about the engagements with inspiring professors, the experience of trying something new, interacting with new cultures, expanding horizons, studying abroad, developing new skills through internships, etc.? It was my time at Allegheny College that inspired me to take the career and life path I have chosen. During my freshman year in college, I was introduced to Richard Hofstatder by reading his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. I still have my copy of the book and much of Hofstatder’s writings are imbued in my philosophy toward education abroad. I will forever be grateful to Allegheny College for this introduction. This encounter could not have happened, nor could its impact on me have been so profound, if it had not been taught on campus. It was also at Allegheny College that took part in fencing and became a life-long fan of the sport, culminating in my participation in the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games of 1996 as a fencing volunteer, where I scored the gold medal women’s fencing match between Italy’s Valentina Vezzali and Romania’s Laura Badea (Badea won). It was also at Allegheny where I found my destiny: to work in the field of international education. I made friendships that I cherish to this day. None of these things would have happened if I were not on a college campus.

These days it is easy to malign colleges and universities, and with the tuition that some of these institutions of higher learning charge, I don’t blame some of the criticism. But for Ms. Senior to claim that many colleges are “cloistered, passive settings” and that “students are fed and housed, just as they were at home; their time and activities are structured, just as it was when they were still in high school,” is not fair. Colleges and universities are committed to internationalizing their campuses through study abroad and international students; there are often “theme” houses where students create communities around a shared academic or cultural interest; students take part in internships to develop skills vital to their future careers, etc. “Passive” is hardly the word I would use to describe college/university campuses. Had Ms. Senior done some more research, she would have seen that thought leaders in the field of international education, for example, are designing innovative ways to inspire and engage students in the pandemic era. Anthony Ogden, PhD and Celia Ogna of Gateway International have compiled a document, “Innovations in International Learning and Engagement for the Next Generation of Higher Education” that dispels the notion of passivity in the field and on most college campuses. Similarly, Brian Whalen, international education leadership fellow at the University of Albany, writes about the changes that international education will experience as a result of Covid-19. None of them involve being “passive” or “useless.” In fact, Whalen coined a term that will mostly like become du jour after the pandemic: “mobility of mind”. It will inspire dynamism, more innovation and proactivity.

The observations presented by Ogden, Ogna and Whalen directly refute Ms. Senior’s contention that “College may give them [students] wonderful opportunities to think, form relationships, and self-define. But it seldom gives them the chance to productively engage with the world.”

I could not disagree more and Ms. Senior’s argument reminds me of a quote by the French philosopher Frédéric Gros. In 2014 he wrote, “We are shackled by our own judgments.” This is yet another reason to emphasize the importance of college education.

Global Thoughts Speaker for November 19, 2020: Shabana Basij-Rasikh

Abroadia is pleased to announce that Shabana Basij-Rasikh, co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), will be our featured Global Thoughts speaker on November 19, at 2pm EST.

There is no cost to participate and you may register via this link:

http://bit.do/globalthoughts-Basij-Rasikh

See you there!

The Abroadia Team

Abroadia is pleased to announce a new advisor has joined our team, Peter Gitau, PhD.

Welcome to Abroadia, Peter!